"What Pujol said about Catalan identity is countercultural and progressive"

BarcelonaJordi Pujol is the president who has given the most power to Catalonia, and the journalist Txema Seglers wanted to reflect this in his book Pujol and I (Saldonar, 2025) a portrait of the character through thirty witnesses, as well as his personal history. This vision of the heads and tails has landed in the presentation of the book, together with the former councilor Irene Rigau, the ERC deputy in Congress Francesc-Marc Álvaro and the deputy director of the ARA and president of the Barnils Group, Enric Borràs –all of them participants in the book–. Beyond the fact that each one has "his Pujol", in full rise of the far right and the questioning of sanitary cordons In the Catalan Alliance, he planned an idea of consensus: "What Pujol said about Catalanness in the 60s and 70s is now countercultural and progressive," said Álvaro.

"The word hate "It doesn't fit into their vocabulary," Rigau concluded, adding that "Christian values" permeate him, as well as the vision of immigrant integration: "If a person feels well served, he will be from here, if he finds services that do not work, that are not useful, he will not be from here," "Aliança, the pure nation of Aliança, is the antithesis of Pujol and Catalanism" throughout more than 150 years of history. For this reason, he believes that the "Catalan far right does not read history, does not take advantage of anything from Pujolism or Catalanism," and from there we can understand Pujol's harsh criticism in Sílvia Orriols and vice versa. Seglers also recalled how in the book Pujol himself explains that he wants to "fight this discourse and this girl from Ripoll with the whole issue of immigration."

Oriol Pujol was in the audience, applauding when he closed the presentation, although the book explains how he got angry when he found out the list of people the author interviewed for the book – and he vetoed the interview with his father, although they talked for four hours.

Plural book

The book ranges from praise to harsh criticism. The philosopher Josep Ramoneda concludes that "with Jordi Pujol there would not have been 1-O"; Joan B. Culla saw him as "King Lear" - who sacrifices himself for his children, in the words of Javier Cercas - and the ARA journalist Núria Orriols highlights his ability to adapt ideologically to the social majorities. Beyond the seduction of the character and surprising witnesses such as Miquel Sellarès or the prosecutor José María Mena, as well as Artur Mas and Xavier Trias, there is also the negative view of Pujol. The one that paints him as a person who wants "power for power's sake", "a suit of Catalanism and Christianity", according to the journalist Lluís Bassets; or the one that makes him look like a "corrupt" person due to the case of Banca Catalana, about which they made a book denouncing theomertan even by the publisher, according to the triumvirate of Enric González, Jaume Reixach and Siscu Bages; or even the severe criticism of Josep Maria Bricall, former advisor to the government of Josep Tarradellas, who goes so far as to say that "Pujol has not understood the French Revolution".

There is also a string of anecdotes of give and take between the former president and the press: Lluís Foix and Joan Tapia recount the pressures as director of The Vanguard. However, his idea of power is made clear so that the Generalitat appears powerful through symbolism, as well as his concern for identity and his legacy. The presentation table has addressed Pujol's contribution, and Rigau has shown herself "hopeful" for a fair judgment on his work, which contrasts with an Álvaro who believes that "in Pujol the man of action, history will place him in perspective", but that "Pujol the man of discourse will come out affected" as a result of the confession.